


Meet the Family

by lea_hazel



Category: Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem (Visual Novel)
Genre: Arland, Community: 7kppmeme, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Meet the Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-23
Updated: 2015-08-23
Packaged: 2018-04-19 17:55:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4755710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lea_hazel/pseuds/lea_hazel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In-laws can be a thorny business. Future in-laws even more so.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meet the Family

"Now Tansy," said Lady Olivia, "you know your older brother is returning home soon with his new bride. In fact, they are expected to ride in as early as this afternoon, which means we must be prepared."   
  
Tansy nodded decisively, though she had no idea what sort of preparations her mother meant.   
  
"Your brother," Lady Olivia paused and cleared her throat. "Dear Emmett, that is to say," she went on, "is bringing home a bride from Revaire."   
  
She waited for her daughter to react, but Tansy's face remained as smooth and serene as ever. She smiled a razor-thin, satisfied smile.   
  
"I am looking forward to meeting my new sister," said Tansy with a delicate, fixed smile, "and to the wedding preparations."   
  
"Indeed," said her mother, "there is much to prepare for the wedding. No doubt your brother and his bride will wish to enact their matrimony with all possible haste. It is up to us, Tansy, to make certain that all proper considerations and traditions are taken into account."   
  
Tansy nodded again, a short, sharp movement.   
  
"Well," said Lady Olivia briskly. "Finish your breakfast, and let us get to business." 

 

* * *

 

Melanie watched the countryside pass them by through the shaded window of the carriage. Everything in Arland was wrapped in layers and layers of obfuscation, far more so than back home. She wondered whether she'd be able to see the sky again, or be forever escorted from carriage to palatine to shaded veranda. She never would have guessed that she'd ever find a place that made the Revaire royal court feel positively honest and welcoming.   
  
"Are you worried?" asked Emmett with a frown.   
  
She shook herself from her momentary reverie and put on a smile. "Not at all."   
  
"Good," said Emmett, grinning broadly. "There's no need to be. I'm sure they'll both adore you just as much as I."   
  
"I think you devalue your own admiration, my lord," she replied, lowering her lashes over her cheeks.   
  
Emmett laughed.   
  
She was serious, of course. She always was, regardless of whatever polite artifice she had to put on to make her words palatable. Never before in her life had she felt so valued as she did since their meeting. And she had every intention of making certain he knew it, every day, for as long as they lived.   
  
"Everything will be fine," said Emmett confidently. "You'll see." 

 

* * *

 

Emmett's stepmother was a small woman with neat wavy hair wound in elaborate braids, wearing a very demure Arlish style day gown. His sister, or half-sister, rather, was far younger than she had expected. A little girl of perhaps fourteen, but looking much younger in her little pink frock. They stood at the foot of the stairs very properly, flanked by servants and wearing prim, painted smiles.   
  
Melanie gathered the skirts of her carriage dress and curtsied. "Lady Olivia, Miss Tansy, very pleased to make your acquaintance."   
  
Lady Olivia put out her hands in a gesture clearly meant to be welcoming. "Daughter," she said with a tone which could plausibly be passed off as warm, "let us not stand on formality."   
  
Emmett was smiling brilliantly, clearly pleased that the introduction was going so well.   
  
Melanie nodded her head slightly and favored her soon-to-be mother-in-law with her most dazzlingly charming smile. "Of course, it is as you say." She turned to the girl. "Miss Tansy, I hope that we will soon grow to know each other better. I just know we're going to be great friends."   
  
The girl smiled a wobbly little smile followed by an equally wobbly curtsy. "Lady Melanie. What an interesting name you have."   
  
Melanie reached up to unwind the veil that she had worn to protect herself from the road dust. "My mother named me for my black hair," she said, shaking out her coiled braids, "which I inherited from my father."   
  
"It's very pretty," said the girl, her eyes fixing on the glossy braids.   
  
Melanie laughed.   
  
"Why, you must be famished after so many hours on the road," said Lady Olivia and clapped her hands together. "Fortunately, everything is prepared and supper will be on the table momentarily."   
  
Emmett held his arm out to his stepmother. "Shall we?"   
  
Lady Olivia quickly smothered a satisfied smirk, but she could not hide the glint in her eye from Melanie. Her lips tightened. She had very well hoped that she wouldn't have to deal with this type of in-law power-play, but she supposed that really was too much to ask for. One of the many advantages, she mused, of marrying a much older man. Not that she would trade Emmett for the world, not now.   
  
She held a hand out to the girl beside her.   
  
Tansy looked up at her with huge, shining brown eyes before hesitantly taking the offered hand and turning to tug her in the direction of the dining hall.   
  
Melanie smiled quietly to herself.   
  
In an audible whisper, Tansy hissed to her, "Is it true that in Revaire girls can inherit?"   
  
She smiled more broadly. "Over dinner," she said, "I can tell you all about where I grew up."


End file.
